2. amps-preamps
  3. 189476-170020

Small amp or all in 1 choice?

My wife and I are in the process of building a small 850 SF Florida vacation home. It will be ready early fall 2024. We are going to put 4 ceiling mounted speakers in the entertainment/living room for viewing tv and streaming music. The TV will be on the wall above a small fireplace with a 14" X 60" granite shelf above the fireplace to hold the electronics, router etc. I am going with a simple "lean and clean" look so no visible speakers in front. I want an "All in One" unit that will accept an HDMI/Arc connection for TV and also have the internal DAC for streaming background music. I was looking at the SVS wireless Pro soundbase but it only drives 2 speakers so I either need to find a similar all in one with HDMI ARC input that can power all 4 speakers or find a small outboard amp to drive the other pair of speakers. My wife is sensitive to to the shrill sounding cheap amps so that needs to be considered.  I really do not want to put a lot of money into this as the house is expensive and taxing the funds. We are starting from scratch here and EVERYTHING is new, tv, appliances, furniture, etc. I looked at the Cambridge stuff but $3000 is too much money for the model that drives 4 speakers so I think I just need to find a nice outboard amp to mate with the SVS. Any suggestions as to what to look at? I've been through the stuff on Crutchfield. I guess I'd like to be around $400-$500 for the amp, of if there is a all in one that drives 4 speakers and has the HDMI input like $1200-$1500 all in? Any ideas? Also I know I could just buy a HT Receiver but wanted to keep things smaller in scale to fit the shelf @ 14 inches deep. A receiver won't fit.

128x128fthompson251
fastfreight
813 posts
 

Hello,
Are you hoping to do surround with the four speakers?

or double up two left and two right speakers?   Do you have a fifth speaker for center channel (voices, dialogue )?
 

the HDMI ARC will have surround sound imbedded.  An inexpensive Marantz AVR does 5 channel audio processing and has 5 or 7 speaker outputs, HDMI input and streams and Bluetooth.  The cheaper Marantz are less deep but still 15”.

As said above, you can double two speakers on one output if the amp can handle the load.

Personally I would just consider wiring the four speakers in double stereo.  For this you don’t have to use HDMI, as the toslink from the tv will also work fine.  You can run the tv audio as well for the dialogue and fill in with the ceiling speakers. There may be more streaming amps available if you drop the HDMI prerequisite.

fthompson251's avatar
fthompson251 OP
463 posts
 

I want to run dual stereo, no surround multi-channel. I want HDMI ARC so I can turn on the TV and have sound without screwing around with several remotes. I cannot fit a receiver in there. I have an inquiry to SVS if I can power 2 speakers per side with their amp.  No center channel speaker. This room is small like 13 X 24 which is open i  the back to the kitchen but the speakers will be arranged on the ceiling above like  8' X 12'. 

carlsbad2's avatar
carlsbad2
1,652 posts
 

With in-wall speakers sound quality is so limitied I would lower my expectations and go with a simple all in one.  No 5.1 available either.  TV sound without a center will be sub optimal.

 

grislybutter
3,141 posts
 

so A+B speakers and no sub?

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,230 posts
 

Is having a receiver in another room or closet an option? Then just use apple tv into the receiver with earc. You will need to run hdmi and speaker wires thru walls but everything will be out of site - clean look. You can then do 5.1ch easily and have a great sound with in wall speakers (center, mains, rear, in wall sub). In addition, Apple TV can stream qobuz and tidal. So you get music as well. 

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